Three Minutes
by QueenElizabeth3andCourtJester
Summary: Nico just wants to be alone, so of course someone comes to his door and decides to knock on it for three straight minutes. But it's definitely not who Nico expected. Rated T for language.


**A/N: So I was working on a Halloween one shot but then solangelo happened and at first I didn't ship it but now I do (obviously) because this plopped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone.**

 **So enjoy I guess.**

 **Allons-y!**

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Nico sat in his plush, comfortable, black chair in his cabin— the Hades cabin— all alone, as per usual, reading one of his favorite novels. He didn't know which one he was reading, but he did know that it had tons of death in it, which, therefore, made it one of his favorites.

A knock against his cabin door roused Nico from the fantasy world his book had pulled him into, and he looked up towards the door. He rolled his eyes. It was probably Percy wanting to bother him or something. It wasn't worth answering the door. Nico went back to his book.

Almost two minutes later, the knocking still hadn't stopped, and Nico was ready to bash his head through a wall. Whoever this person was, they were wildly persistent, and Nico really wanted nothing more than to run them through with his sword.

After another whole minute of torment, Nico finally grumbled, "Come in."

He heard the door open and the footsteps of someone walking in, as it was probably Percy or Jason, maybe. He hoped it wasn't Jason. He'd only pester him about how "everything would be okay". Nico rolled his eyes at the thought.

"Hey, Nico," a voice that was _definitely_ not Jason or Percy greeted. The voice was like melting rays of sunshine dripping down towards the— no. Nico wasn't a protagonist in one of his badly written YA novels. Even through his curiosity, Nico didn't bother to look up from his book.

"Hmm," he mumbled in response. His book was getting very good.

"You gonna look up from that book any time soon?" the person laughed. The laugh caused Nico to squirm in his seat slightly. It was a _very_ nice laugh. But he was stubborn. He wasn't going to give the mystery boy the satisfaction of his attention after he knocked on his door for three straight minutes.

"I guess not," the honey-like voice said with another chuckle that made Nico feel like _he_ was a melting ray of sunshine. "I'll just come back later then."

Okay, now Nico was pissed.

He slammed his book shut in his rage, forgetting to stick his bookmark in completely, but also not caring either. Here was this kid, who not only knocked on his door for _three freaking minutes_ , but also turned Nico into a mushy teenage girl, and he was just going to _leave_. No way.

"So you desperately needed me so much that you had to knock on my door for three minutes, but you also don't need me enough to stay and tell me what the fuck you want when I don't look up from my book? How about you make up your damn mind before you come back so I don't have to put up with this again!" Nico huffed angrily, glaring up at the... Will Solace?

Nico's face immediately turned bright red and his lips parted slightly in surprise. No. This couldn't be happening. He knew the gods hated him—merely because he was a son of Hades, mind you, it had nothing to do with his stellar personality—but he never thought it would go this far. Not far enough where he'd unknowingly yell at Will Solace, the star of his we— ahem, wildest dreams, the guy with whom Nico had had a crush on since after the Giant War. This was a mutiny, a betrayal. See if Nico ever gives half of his food in offering to the gods at mealtime ever again.

Will looked surprised by Nico's outburst, and a blush formed on his cheeks as he looked away. "Um, sorry," he said, "I just wanted to see if you were okay. You didn't show up to breakfast this morning."

It was true. Nico hadn't shown up for breakfast that morning. But he'd had a good excuse. He'd been too hungover from the episode of _Supernatural_ on the night before that he hadn't even attempted to get up. He was sure some of the Aphrodite kids had been in the same boat, though. Watching Dean beat up Castiel wasn't a very good experience for anyone in the love department.

But here Will was, looking to Nico expectantly, wanting him to explain why he hadn't been at breakfast. What could Nico say? _I'm sorry I wasn't there, last night two people whose, sadly, nonexistent relationship I am very invested in beat each other up— well, more like one of them beat up the other one— and I couldn't scrounge up the energy to make my way to breakfast because I was too emotionally compromised?_ No. That'd just make him seem weird.

"I was, um, doing home— wait, no, I was watch— no, that's not— I was— my ship—" Nico stuttered, before composing himself and finally finishing, deadpan, "I wasn't feeling well."

Will, thankfully, only gave him a slightly confused glance. "Are you feeling better now? I could take you to the—"

Nico cut him off with a resounding, "No, no, no!" Jason was there because of an injury from sword fighting Annabeth, a big mistake on his part, and if Nico went in there, Jason would be on top of him like Mr. D on an early twentieth century bottle of wine. There'd be no escape.

"I could just check you out then," Will offered, "I am a son of Apollo, after all." He gave Nico a small smile.

To Nico, this felt vaguely like the beginning of a really bad porno.

Trying to steer his thoughts towards anything but porn, he quickly assured Will that that would not be necessary and that he was currently in tip top shape. Thankfully—hey, maybe the gods didn't hate Nico so much after all—Will relented.

"That's good," Will smiled. He leaned over and clapped Nico on the shoulder. "I worry about you di Angelo."

Nico's heart practically stopped.

Now, excluding the fact that when Will clapped him on the shoulder, Nico had been almost launched out of his chair, that had to be the best shoulder clapping Nico's left shoulder had ever gotten on a Thursday at about noon. Maybe even the best one on the Thursday over all. Maybe the best one at about noon.

And his hand was _still on Nico's shoulder_. It was just _resting there_. Like it had a _right_. Like Nico _told it it could be there_. Like it wasn't causing Nico's heart to _practically beat out of his chest_.

"I—uh," Nico spluttered, trying to look anywhere but at the hand on his shoulder or the boy in front of him and completely, utterly, failing in both regards. "I worry about me, too."

Nico wanted to put his head through a wall for the second time that day.

 _How could you say something so_ _stupid?_ Nico berated himself. _Why didn't you say something cool like "I can take care of myself" or "Don't bother worrying about me" or "Since your hand is in a great position for it, why don't we make out?"_ Okay, the last one wouldn't have been that great of an idea, but anything would have been better than what he just said.

It's a good thing that all of Nico's expressions resemble a death glare, or else the panic would have been obvious and he would have been screwed.

But Will, bless him, only said "Are you sure you're okay?"

 _Yes_ , Nico wanted to answer, _but I'd be even better if we were passionately kissing against a wall_.

Nico settled on something simpler. "I'm fine," he assured the other boy, who was just now disengaging his grasp from Nico's shoulder.

Sadly, Nico's brain hadn't quite gotten the memo that stated that in no way shape or form should Nico ever, ever, _ever_ even consider grabbing Will's arm as he retracted it, because that's exactly what he did.

Will looked down at his arm in surprise, then to Nico, then back to his arm.

Nico looked down to Will's arm, then to Will, then back to Will's arm.

"Bug," Nico blurted out.

"What?" Will said, almost sounding a little dazed for some reason.

"There was a, um, bug... on your... arm," Nico finished lamely.

"Oh, um, thanks," Will said, his gaze firmly fixed on Nico's hand on his arm.

Nico realized that he was still holding Will's arm and immediately let it go, a blush seeping up on his cheeks again. This wasn't like Nico. He was a son of Hades, dammit! He wasn't supposed to get all _flustered_ and _love struck_! The only explanation was that Aphrodite herself had slipped something into his dinner last night because this was... this was... completely preposterous!

Nico and Will stared at each other awkwardly.

And they kept staring.

For like a whole minute they just... kept staring. Awkwardly. At each other.

Finally, Will broke the stare and cleared his throat.

"I was wondering if you wanted to walk to lunch together," Will said, still shifting awkwardly.

Nico was at a loss for words.

There were so many bad things that could happen if he accepted. He may say something stupid. Will might say something so cute that Nico would have no choice but to shove him on the floor and run. Or shove him on the floor and start kissing him. Or shove him on the floor and— no. Nico was not going there.

The noise that Nico made in response vaguely resembled the groaning sound Tina Belcher often makes on _Bob's Burgers_.

"It's okay if you don't want to," Will rushed to say, "It was just an offer."

Nico started shaking his head in response but he couldn't stop. It was like his head kept moving on its own accord. He reached up and physically stopped his head from moving back and forth. This was possibly the most humiliating moment in Nico's life and he had once lost a bet with a ghost in the Underworld and had to stand outside Percy's— his then crush— cabin and recite the balcony scene in _Romeo & Juliet_.

"No," Nico finally got out, "I'd love— like, _like_ , to." Nico was pretty sure that at this point he was going to have a blush permanently stained on his cheeks.

"Great," Will said with a smile. "Shall we?" He motioned towards the door.

Nico nodded, but sadly, in his haste to stand up— it was all a lie, the gods truly did hate him— Nico tripped over his own feet and when toppling down towards the ground. And alas, since this was not a fairytale and was instead Nico's unfortunate existence, Will did not reach out and grab him, followed by a sexually charged stare and, finally, the big kiss everyone was waiting for. No. If Nico was going to be kissing anything, it was the floor he just landed face first on.

The only bright side to this was that Nico didn't land on one of the many hardcover books scattered across his floor.

"Oh my gods!" Will exclaimed, kneeling down over Nico. "Are you okay?"

Nico moaned.

"Nico?" Will asked frantically, still leaning over the other boy who was sprawled out on the floor and hadn't made any sort of movement to get up.

"Put me out of my misery," Nico mumbled into the floor, wishing he could just melt and seep into it. He vaguely wondered if Percy would be able to turn into a puddle. That would be kind of awesome.

"What?" Will asked, leaning even closer towards Nico, hoping to actually catch what he said next time.

Nico didn't bother answering, and instead just started banging his head repeatedly against the floor. It wasn't a wall but it would do.

"Nico? Nico!" Will grabbed Nico's shoulder and pulled him up from the floor in one swift motion. Nico felt vaguely like swooning.

Nico could also vaguely feel the bruise forming on his head.

And now Nico couldn't breathe.

Will was staring straight at him, his eyes boring into Nico's soul. Or at least it felt like that. Okay, sure, Nico was being over dramatic, but he's had a bad day, cut him some slack.

It was all Nico could do to stop himself from reaching over and kissing Will with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. But Nico was a son of Hades. He ate will power for breakfast.

(In truth, Nico actually ate pancakes with devil horns for breakfast, but that was only a trivial detail.)

Will's hand grabbed onto Nico's waist, and for a second, Nico was sure Will was going to kiss him. As it turned out, Nico had been swaying slightly from lack of breath and Will was just steadying him.

"Are you okay?" Will asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Nico didn't have an answer. Will was only about a foot away from him and his hand was _on his hip and how was Nico supposed to form a coherent thought under these circumstances?_

"I..." was all Nico managed to get out. Well, there was also a small squeak afterwards, but Nico wanted to keep some of his pride.

Will's hand drifted up Nico's body and stopped at his shoulder. Nico's only wish was that it went just a little bit higher to cup his cheek and— oh. Was Will saying something?

"... uncomfortable and I can go if you want," Will offered, his hand moving away and _who the hell told it it could do that?_

Nico was shaking his head, not really grasping what Will said, but definitely not liking the whole "go" thing.

"I'm... I'm fine," Nico assured Will, but it came out as more of a gasp then a statement.

"Are you sure? Because I can—"

It turned out Nico didn't actually eat will power for breakfast because at that exact moment Nico's will completely crumbled and he was stepping in Will's personal space and grabbing Will's face and kissing him with all he had.

Imagining kissing Will was nothing compared to actually kissing Will. It felt like Nico had stumbled into his own personal heaven and was rolling around in it. It felt like he was dancing on a ray of sunshine while moonbeams radiated into him. It felt like he was watching his otp finally become canon (because, let's be real, they've been in love with each other for six seasons, it's gone on too long). It felt like everything Nico had ever wanted kissing someone to be.

And then it was over.

Will had backed away, surprise covering his face. Nico wanted to just stop existing. To just _poof_ and be gone.

Nico once again made a sound resembling that of Tina's groan from _Bob's Burgers_.

Then, Will surged forward and kissed Nico once again, causing the groan to die out on Nico's lips. Kissing Will made everything seem okay. It made all of Nico's embarrassment fade. It made everything in the world fade around him. It made him forget about Jason's weird obsession with him. It made him forget about Percy following him around and yelling "what do you mean I'm not your type, though? I'm pretty sure I'm everybody's type". Nothing else seemed to matter.

And so, if Nico and Will didn't make it to lunch that afternoon, it was okay. Maybe Nico was still just too hungover to get there. It's not like some of the Aphrodite kids weren't feeling the same way.

And when Jason barged in without knocking in his desperate attempt to make sure Nico was okay after he didn't show up to breakfast or lunch that day, Nico didn't bat an eye. No. He merely paused his and Will's kissing for a brief moment, grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt and threw the guy out on his ass because, hey, Nico really liked kissing Will.

It was an issue he didn't mind having.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, wow, I started writing this in October and didn't finish till now (my muse was gone, but it came back in light of my boredom from not wanting to read fanfiction).**

 **I'm sorry that this turned out so bad, but I've only really written this late at night and I'm dead tired and I just really wanted to finish this so I could upload it, but I hope you enjoyed it anyways! Any feedback would be extremely appreciated!**

 **\- Queen Elizabeth III**


End file.
